I regularly help clients with their blogs, but had never managed to get my own off the ground. Then at the end of November I made a commitment to myself to actually do it. And rather than just telling myself I would do it, I thought about what was getting in the way before, and what would ensure I succeeded this time.
So, based on my own experience, and what my clients tell me, here are some of the reasons you may not have blogged regularly last year – and some suggestions for how to overcome your blogging obstacles.
1. You didn’t know what to blog about
It can be difficult to figure out what people might be interested in reading about – or maybe you can think of about 5 topics, but you’re not sure what comes next.
TRY THIS: The lovely Janet Murray gave this excellent advice at her Content Live event in 2018:
- List all the questions you’ve been asked by your clients or customers in the last year.
- Turn each question into a ‘How’ post. (I did this exercise and ended up with over 40 ideas for posts in just a few minutes!)
Youpreneur author Chris Ducker says, “The two words people type in most often when the go to the Google search bar are ‘how to’. For me, without a doubt, the best type of content to create, particularly when you’re starting out, is how to content.”
For more great tips from Content Live, see this post.
2. You didn’t think anyone would be interested in what you had to say
I’ve had people tell me that they don’t want to be one of ‘those’ people, putting themselves out there and saying ‘look at me!’. You may feel you’re nothing special, or that you have nothing to share that anyone else would care about. Why would anyone want to read your thoughts?
TRY THIS: If you’re running a business, you have knowledge and expertise worth sharing. Knowledge that other people – your customers and potential customers – will be interested in. Look at it as helping people by sharing useful information: it’s not about you, it’s about your customers.
3. You just didn’t have the time
If you’re like the majority of people, writing is simply not part of your routine. As a busy business owner you’ve got more important things to do – there’s always something more urgent on your to-do list than writing a blog post, so it’s something that slips further and further down that list.
And it takes time to write a decent post (and then there’s the proofreading and editing…)
TRY THIS:
- Diarise time for blog writing – and stick to it. If you’re serious about starting a blog, make it an appointment with yourself that you just can’t miss.
- Work out when you write best – early in the morning before anyone else is up, late at night, at the weekend – and where in your day or week you could make time.
- Don’t write, record. Record your thoughts using your mobile phone, send the recording to an online transcription service (you can do this for less than £1 per minute), and use that to construct a blog post.
4. Lots of ideas, no follow-through
I’ve worked with clients who have no problem thinking of ideas, but are overcome with ‘blank page syndrome’ when they sit down to actually write the thing. They don’t know how to start, or how to structure their writing.
TRY THIS:
- Start with one simple sentence that sums of your topic (this may or may not end up being the post title).
- Next, list your key ideas (anything from 3 to 10 is ideal)
- Now add a bit of detail to each idea in the form of bullet points or spider diagrams. By the time you start writing, your post will feel like it’s half done – and you’ll have a really clear guide for your writing.
5. You felt like you couldn’t write as ‘yourself’ (i.e. thinking about SEO took the fun out of it)
You probably have some idea that SEO (search engine optimisation) matters in a blog post – at least, if you actually want anyone to find it and read it. When I first started out with WordPress I used to tie myself in knots trying to make my post ‘fit’ with the keywords and structure that my SEO plugin demanded. It can lead to some unnatural-sounding wording! But while it is important to structure posts in a way that’s search engine friendly, don’t let this ruin the writing process for you.
TRY THIS:
Write your first draft the way you would speak if you were talking directly to a customer. Leave any editing for SEO to afterwards. As you get more practised, you’ll find that you’ll become more aware of SEO and thinking about it will become a natural part of the process.
6. You got several posts started, but never managed to finish them
I’ve worked with clients who had lots of unfinished posts saved on their blog that had never been published.
There are a few reasons for this: you might be suffering from ‘shiny thing syndrome’ and be easily distracted (or you’re often interrupted in the middle of writing, lose the flow and never go back to it). Or maybe you’re not convinced your ideas are any good – often there’s a mindset piece going on here.
TRY THIS:
- Make a plan for the year. Jot down all your ideas, then make a plan for the year, with a post for each week – and stick to it (with some flexibility for unexpected relevant news events).
- Write the ‘skeleton’ first. Before you start to write a post, use headings and bullets (see #4) so you know where you’re going with it if you get interrupted.
7. You were never satisfied with your posts
Are you the sort of person who keeps going back to reread and improve your writing – but you find that it’s never good enough?
If you’re finishing your posts but you’re afraid to hit ‘publish’, you might be suffering from perfectionism. It’s natural to want to make your content as good as possible, but if it’s stopping you from putting anything out there then you need to manage your perfectionist tendencies.
TRY THIS:
- Remember that done is better than perfect (because it means you’ll actually get something published!).
- Allow yourself one edit session. Once a post is finished, come back after 24 hours and re-read it. Allow yourself one (short!) editing session, but then you must click ‘publish’! Be strict with yourself.
8. You’re no good a the ‘techie’ bit
Not everyone was born to use a computer. Sitting in front of a screen is my natural home, so #8 hadn’t even occurred to me – it was a client who made the suggestion.
So what do you do if you view using WordPress as akin to going into battle, spend hours trying to get your post to look right… then get frustrated and give up?
TRY THIS:
You really have two options here:
- Don’t get hung up on perfection. Use a simple text editor, add an image, and publish.
- Get some help! Find someone who’s at home on blogging platforms to do this bit for you! Ask a colleague, your partner, or someone you hire.
9. You got off to a good start, then life got in the way
This is a really common one. You write two or three posts, but then blogging drops off your radar. It’s not a habit for you, so it’s all too easy to let blogging fall by the wayside.
TRY THIS:
- Plan your topics for the year ( using a themed approach, or using calendar events in your business as the structure).
- Write or record posts in batches. Set aside a day a month for writing.
- Get someone to hold you to account. (When I first started, I set regular blogging as a goal with my business coach, which helped me to keep going.)
10. You published a few posts, had a tumbleweed moment, and gave up
You spent hours on your posts. They were lovingly crafted miniature works of art. After all that effort, you finally clicked ‘publish’. You shared the posts on social media.
But when you checked your Google Analytics there were just a handful of views.
After this happened a few times, your motivation started to dwindle. If nobody’s reading your posts, what’s the point?
TRY THIS:
- Commit to writing one post a week for a year. A smaller timescale isn’t long enough to make an impact or judge the effectiveness of your blog (although you can use the time to learn what works and what doesn’t).
- Use Google Analytics. Keep an eye on which of your posts are doing best, and make more of that kind of content. Don’t let what you perceive as low figures make you give up too early – but do check in regularly to see how much traffic you are getting and how your audience is behaving.
- Keep going! It can take a year to establish a blog. I’ve had clients who didn’t think it was worth continuing with the level of engagement they were getting, but who later discovered that key clients or partners were reading their blog and finding real value in it. Their blog was steadily raising their profile without them being aware.
Marcus Sheridan of They Ask, You Answer says: “The speed at which sales result from your content marketing effort can vary tremendously. That being said, it should certainly happen before the first-year mark.”
You can find out more about the books I’ve mentioned here in this post.
Are you planning to launch your membership site in 2020?
I support my clients with building, marketing and managing their memberships and online courses, helping them to:
- Plan, create, edit and upload course content
- Join the dots behind the scenes to automate processes and make things run smoothly
- Integrate CRM, course delivery and marketing
If you'd like to have a chat about getting some support with your membership, you can get in touch to arrange a free 30 minute chat here.
I'm looking forward to finding out more about you, your business, and your goals for the coming year.
I regularly help clients with their blogs, but had never managed to get my own off the ground. Then at the end of November I made a commitment to myself to actually do it. And rather than just telling myself I would do it, I thought about what was getting in the way before, and what would ensure I succeeded this time.
So, based on my own experience, and what my clients tell me, here are some of the reasons you may not have blogged regularly last year – and some suggestions for how to overcome your blogging obstacles.
1. You didn’t know what to blog about
It can be difficult to figure out what people might be interested in reading about – or maybe you can think of about 5 topics, but you’re not sure what comes next.
TRY THIS: The lovely Janet Murray gave this excellent advice at her Content Live event in 2018:
- List all the questions you’ve been asked by your clients or customers in the last year.
- Turn each question into a ‘How’ post. (I did this exercise and ended up with over 40 ideas for posts in just a few minutes!)
Youpreneur author Chris Ducker says, “The two words people type in most often when the go to the Google search bar are ‘how to’. For me, without a doubt, the best type of content to create, particularly when you’re starting out, is how to content.”
For more great tips from Content Live, see this post.
2. You didn’t think anyone would be interested in what you had to say
I’ve had people tell me that they don’t want to be one of ‘those’ people, putting themselves out there and saying ‘look at me!’. You may feel you’re nothing special, or that you have nothing to share that anyone else would care about. Why would anyone want to read your thoughts?
TRY THIS: If you’re running a business, you have knowledge and expertise worth sharing. Knowledge that other people – your customers and potential customers – will be interested in. Look at it as helping people by sharing useful information: it’s not about you, it’s about your customers.
3. You just didn’t have the time
If you’re like the majority of people, writing is simply not part of your routine. As a busy business owner you’ve got more important things to do – there’s always something more urgent on your to-do list than writing a blog post, so it’s something that slips further and further down that list.
And it takes time to write a decent post (and then there’s the proofreading and editing…)
TRY THIS:
- Diarise time for blog writing – and stick to it. If you’re serious about starting a blog, make it an appointment with yourself that you just can’t miss.
- Work out when you write best – early in the morning before anyone else is up, late at night, at the weekend – and where in your day or week you could make time.
- Don’t write, record. Record your thoughts using your mobile phone, send the recording to an online transcription service (you can do this for less than £1 per minute), and use that to construct a blog post.
4. Lots of ideas, no follow-through
I’ve worked with clients who have no problem thinking of ideas, but are overcome with ‘blank page syndrome’ when they sit down to actually write the thing. They don’t know how to start, or how to structure their writing.
TRY THIS:
- Start with one simple sentence that sums of your topic (this may or may not end up being the post title).
- Next, list your key ideas (anything from 3 to 10 is ideal)
- Now add a bit of detail to each idea in the form of bullet points or spider diagrams. By the time you start writing, your post will feel like it’s half done – and you’ll have a really clear guide for your writing.
5. You felt like you couldn’t write as ‘yourself’ (i.e. thinking about SEO took the fun out of it)
You probably have some idea that SEO (search engine optimisation) matters in a blog post – at least, if you actually want anyone to find it and read it. When I first started out with WordPress I used to tie myself in knots trying to make my post ‘fit’ with the keywords and structure that my SEO plugin demanded. It can lead to some unnatural-sounding wording! But while it is important to structure posts in a way that’s search engine friendly, don’t let this ruin the writing process for you.
TRY THIS:
Write your first draft the way you would speak if you were talking directly to a customer. Leave any editing for SEO to afterwards. As you get more practised, you’ll find that you’ll become more aware of SEO and thinking about it will become a natural part of the process.
6. You got several posts started, but never managed to finish them
I’ve worked with clients who had lots of unfinished posts saved on their blog that had never been published.
There are a few reasons for this: you might be suffering from ‘shiny thing syndrome’ and be easily distracted (or you’re often interrupted in the middle of writing, lose the flow and never go back to it). Or maybe you’re not convinced your ideas are any good – often there’s a mindset piece going on here.
TRY THIS:
- Make a plan for the year. Jot down all your ideas, then make a plan for the year, with a post for each week – and stick to it (with some flexibility for unexpected relevant news events).
- Write the ‘skeleton’ first. Before you start to write a post, use headings and bullets (see #4) so you know where you’re going with it if you get interrupted.
7. You were never satisfied with your posts
Are you the sort of person who keeps going back to reread and improve your writing – but you find that it’s never good enough?
If you’re finishing your posts but you’re afraid to hit ‘publish’, you might be suffering from perfectionism. It’s natural to want to make your content as good as possible, but if it’s stopping you from putting anything out there then you need to manage your perfectionist tendencies.
TRY THIS:
- Remember that done is better than perfect (because it means you’ll actually get something published!).
- Allow yourself one edit session. Once a post is finished, come back after 24 hours and re-read it. Allow yourself one (short!) editing session, but then you must click ‘publish’! Be strict with yourself.
8. You’re no good a the ‘techie’ bit
Not everyone was born to use a computer. Sitting in front of a screen is my natural home, so #8 hadn’t even occurred to me – it was a client who made the suggestion.
So what do you do if you view using WordPress as akin to going into battle, spend hours trying to get your post to look right… then get frustrated and give up?
TRY THIS:
You really have two options here:
- Don’t get hung up on perfection. Use a simple text editor, add an image, and publish.
- Get some help! Find someone who’s at home on blogging platforms to do this bit for you! Ask a colleague, your partner, or someone you hire.
9. You got off to a good start, then life got in the way
This is a really common one. You write two or three posts, but then blogging drops off your radar. It’s not a habit for you, so it’s all too easy to let blogging fall by the wayside.
TRY THIS:
- Plan your topics for the year ( using a themed approach, or using calendar events in your business as the structure).
- Write or record posts in batches. Set aside a day a month for writing.
- Get someone to hold you to account. (When I first started, I set regular blogging as a goal with my business coach, which helped me to keep going.)
10. You published a few posts, had a tumbleweed moment, and gave up
You spent hours on your posts. They were lovingly crafted miniature works of art. After all that effort, you finally clicked ‘publish’. You shared the posts on social media.
But when you checked your Google Analytics there were just a handful of views.
After this happened a few times, your motivation started to dwindle. If nobody’s reading your posts, what’s the point?
TRY THIS:
- Commit to writing one post a week for a year. A smaller timescale isn’t long enough to make an impact or judge the effectiveness of your blog (although you can use the time to learn what works and what doesn’t).
- Use Google Analytics. Keep an eye on which of your posts are doing best, and make more of that kind of content. Don’t let what you perceive as low figures make you give up too early – but do check in regularly to see how much traffic you are getting and how your audience is behaving.
- Keep going! It can take a year to establish a blog. I’ve had clients who didn’t think it was worth continuing with the level of engagement they were getting, but who later discovered that key clients or partners were reading their blog and finding real value in it. Their blog was steadily raising their profile without them being aware.
Marcus Sheridan of They Ask, You Answer says: “The speed at which sales result from your content marketing effort can vary tremendously. That being said, it should certainly happen before the first-year mark.”
You can find out more about the books I’ve mentioned here in this post.
Are you planning to launch a membership site in 2020?
I support my clients with building, marketing and managing their memberships and online courses, helping them to:
- Create and upload course content
- Join the dots behind the scenes to automate processes and make things run smoothly
- Integrate CRM, course delivery and marketing
If you'd like to have a chat about your membership, you can get in touch to arrange a free 30 minute chat here.
I'm looking forward to finding out more about you, your business, and your goals for the coming year.